Moving Memoirs

“We tell ourselves stories,” Joan Didion once wrote, “in order to live.” To rid ourselves of the memories that burden us. Or, at the very least, to come to terms with them, so we can proceed through life a little less encumbered than before. Shot through with melancholy, these fiercely intelligent, mordantly witty confessionals span a range of genres–from music videos to experimental animated shorts–but are united in their commitment to radical acts of disclosure.

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This Is What We’re Left With

Alexis Stratton | Englewood, CO | 6 minGenre: Documentary

In this deeply introspective video essay, Indie Grits alum Alexis Stratton plumbs the depths of their home movie archive, stitching together clips of snow days, band performances, prom nights, and other hallmarks of adolescence to ruminate on queer identity, the nature of memory, and lingering personal trauma.

And By the Night

Anna Kipervaser | Durham, NC | 10 minGenre: Experimental

Prayer-like in its contemplation of color and motion, this silent experimental documentary combines disparate images (an empty carousel, tall grasses bending in the wind, a lone jet inching across the sky) to reflect on the filmmaker’s abortion. Shot on radiant 16mm film.

Moon Racer – “Song of the Mogwai”

Autumn Ehinger | Durham, NC | 4 minGenre: Music Video

With lyrics to her hazy, hypnotic “Song of the Mogwai” spilling forth stop-motion style from a marbled composition notebook, musician-turned-filmmaker Autumn Ehinger (who performs under the moniker Moon Racer) invites viewers into a space of deep self-reflection.

Foreclosed Home Movie

Lisa Danker | Orlando, FL | 8 minGenre: Essay, Experimental

Indie Grits alum Lisa Danker assesses the human toll of America’s ongoing foreclosure crisis, linking two sister tales of loss (that of a 1930s-era Miami homeowner, and that of her mother in 2013) through archival imagery, family testimonies, celluloid printmaking experiments, and more.

GEORGIE

Odile Postic | Richmond, VA | 3 minGenre: Essay, Animation

After finding his own obituary taped to the door of his apartment, a frizzle-haired man with the body of a cello ditches work, hops on a plane, and mulls over his predicament. GEORGIE is the latest work from Indie Grits alum (and Columbia native) Odile Postic.

Between My flesh and the world’s fingers

Talena Sanders | Sebastopol, CA | 31 minGenre: Experimental

Writer, filmmaker, provocateur–Mary MacLane, by her own admission, had “a hundred sides.” An openly queer woman who lived in Butte, Montana in the early twentieth century, MacLane’s fiery, fiercely individual films and written works supply the raw material for this expressive experimental portrait.